The sound church bell could be heard all over town, the bells were loud enough to be heard by the surrounding villages, the sound of each bell, seemed to somehow express the feelings of pain and loss, every time the sound was heard, it was like a person's heart was breaking.
Kirito sat near the entrance to the town, behind his the pair of guards that watched over the main gate kept looking at him with eyes filled with fear and uncertainty.
Right now he, as well as the rest of the cleaners, weren't within the areas controls by the player, no, like it or not they were inside the borders of one of the kingdoms inside Aincrad, they chose to rest there for two reasons, one the nearest lands controlled by players, was the one the Army held under their power.
The other reason because of the close proximity between the two powers neither one wanted to start any trouble with the other, so players were free to come and go as they please, as long as they didn't cause any problems.
A large funeral was being held for all of the dead, unfortunately, there were a lot more missing people than the ones that were found.
Kirito reached out and touched the small window allowing his help screen to come out, he began to replay his daughters first day of school, anyone else that saw him would think that he was just moving his hand around like an idiot and smiling like an insane man.
Being a cleaner was stressful work, so a lot of them would take vacations every now and then when things became too much for them, some people would go spend some time in one of local whorehouses, others would spend time with their guilds, some people even simply visited quiet areas where they could be alone.
That was just how stressful the job was and if no one did it, then all of the things they fought, would one day reach their homes, that thought alone made a lot of players uncomfortable.
For obvious reasons most of the players were men and a lot of them had taken liking to one or two village girls and from what Kirito heard, the feelings were mutual.
"Care for a sugar?" Asked a knight one whose name Kirito didn't know, from the information on the man's screen, his name was Lancelot, everything else however was hidden.
"I heard about your battle with the creatures, forgive me for being so rude, but if you would allow me to know, just how exactly did you players manage to defeat them all. The orcs and goblins alone would have been a prolonged fight one that would have lasted for weeks." Asked Lancelot
"We didn't fight fairly and we used underhanded tactics." Kirito answered the man, however, he didn't bother to elaborate more than what was needed.
Lancelot simply smiled. "I see. So what were you remembering? From the way you moved and the expression on your face, either you were looking at something or you were remembering the past, a loved one perhaps." Lancelot continued.
Kirito looked at the man for a long moment before closing his eyes and smiling, he moved his hand in the air and allowed his help screen to be displayed before the knight.
"Illusionary magic" Lancelot immediately said.
"My daughter, it was her first day of school." Kirito said as the image of several teens marching passed and smaller children walked behind them, trying to imitate they way they marched. However soon the video showed a bunch of little children who's feet moved as fast as they could, just to be able to keep up with their elders.
Lancelot smiled faintly, understanding that this, this was something precious to Kirito.
The sound of a spark igniting a cigar made Kirito turn to look at the ma besides him, as the man took a puff of his cigar he offered another to Kirito, however, Kirito to just rejected the mans offer.
"...Are there more out there?" Lancelot asked.
"I don't know" Kirito immediately answers the man and an uneasy silence settled in between the two men, even as the sounds of funeral bells echoed in the background.
(Character change Asuna)
Asuna smiled as she spoke with the people around the city, most of the guards were gone, now only a few stayed behind to help keep a form of protection around her.
She was busy buying things like lumber, tools and things that villages usually needed just to get buy. She enjoyed her time speaking to the merchants and listening to them as they tried sweet talk her into buying overly expensive items or things she really didn't need.
Despite this she was getting the hand of managing the expenses of her land, granted she hadn't ruled over anything or even stayed on that land for an extended period of time, still there was a familiarity to it all.
Perhaps all of the paperwork or work that seemed to pile up regardless of how much she completed, reminded her of her life before entering Sword Art Online, back when the only thing she cared about, was getting good grades.
Things such as friends and extra activities were meaningless to her back then, it spoke a lot about her situation in life, that the first friend she ever made was inside the game.